The transmission
Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) was the Japanese monk who founded the Soto school of Zen after training in China, and whose masterwork Shobogenzo (“Treasury of the True Dharma Eye”) is one of the most philosophically dense bodies of writing in the contemplative world.
He taught shikantaza, “just sitting”—a practice of objectless, choiceless presence—and the unity of practice and realization: sitting is not a means to a future enlightenment but is itself the full expression of awakening.
His meditation on uji (“being-time”) collapses the separation between existence and time, arguing that each moment fully is reality, with no past or future standing outside the present actualization of awareness.
For the mind-power lineage, Dogen represents the contemplative end of Zen—where the others shout and strike, he reveals the radical claim that present-moment awareness is itself complete reality, and that there is no enlightenment to be “gotten” because being-time is already the whole of what is.
His phenomenology of total presence is a deep ancestor of modern “power of now” and present-moment teaching (Tolle and others) and of the contemplative side of Western mindfulness. By insisting that realization is enacted, not acquired, Dogen grounds the “you are already it” theme in moment-to-moment lived awareness rather than sudden flash alone.
What they gave
Practice-realization unity: Taught that meditation is not a means to awakening but its full expression.
- Shikantaza (“just sitting”): Developed objectless, choiceless presence as the heart of practice.
- Being-time (uji): Reframed time and existence as the single present actualization of reality.
- Phenomenology of presence: Articulated total moment-to-moment awareness, ancestor of “power of now.”
In their words
To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.
To carry the self forward and illuminate myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and illuminate the self is awakening.
When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.
Yet in attachment blossoms fall, and in aversion weeds spread.
Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again. Yet do not suppose that the ash is after and the firewood before.
Learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will manifest.
Zazen is the ultimate practice. This is indeed the True Self.
The line they stand in
Influenced by: Chinese Caodong/Soto Chan; his teacher Rujing; Huineng’s sudden school.
- Influenced: the Soto Zen school and shikantaza; modern present-moment and “power of now” teaching; Western mindfulness and nondual practice.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- Shobogenzo (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye)1231-1253
- Fukanzazengi (Universal Recommendation for Zazen)1227